CD Color Spinners: basic color theory explored

I enjoyed this craft because it was almost entirely made up of recycled materials. Fortunately, the town I live in is home to MECCA, a non-profit store that "is dedicated to diverting scrap materials from the waste stream and into the creative
endeavors of [the] community". It is here that I found the ping pong balls, CDs and bottle cap lids used for the spinners. Also, I found inspiration for this craft from Maya who blogs for the center. Please check out her post here.

In addition to this craft being super cool in an environmental way, the resulting activity was fun and educational as well. We made a total of 3 spinners — a blue and red one, a blue and yellow one, and a red and yellow one. When each of these were spun around, the 2 colors blurred together and appeared to create a single color — purple, green and orange, respectively.

First off, I
used a CD and drew a circle around it, then drew 6 "pie pieces" within
it. You can do the same, or click on the above image, control click
(MAC) or right click (Windows), save to your computer, and print out.

I then had Bode fill each "pie piece" with alternating colors in each
pie. For example, one pie had red and blue alternating colors, one pie
had red and yellow, and one pie had yellow and blue. I outlined each
triangular pie piece with a specific color so he knew which color to
fill each pie piece with. The beauty of this project is that the
coloring doesn't have to be perfectly in the lines (which is kind of
difficult for a 4-year-old).

After my son drew a total of 3 "pies" in each of the 3 possible
combinations of 2 primary colors each, I then cut the circles out, and
had him glue them to the CDs.

Once the paper is glued down on each of CDs, I then hot-glued bottle caps to the center of the tops of each CD (this part is for the parent to do!). I applied the hot glue directly to the CD (eyeballing it), not the bottle cap, to avoid risk of burning myself.

And then I hot-glued a ping pong ball to the bottom (parent's job as well!). Again, I applied the hot glue directly to the CD and not to the ping pong ball.
Then we were set to go! Simple as that!

CD spinners completed

Spin away! Notice how the 2 colors "appear" to become one color when the movement blurs them! Yellow and red becomes orange. Red and blue becomes purple. Blue and yellow becomes green! This was a great opportunity to talk about the terms "primary colors" (red, yellow, and blue) and "secondary colors" (purple, green and orange). The spinners proved to be very easy for little 4-year-old hands to handle and operate! Have fun!If you liked this post and you want to stay informed of more kid
activity ideas I post or find around the blogosphere, remember to "like"
me on my Facebook Page! Thank you! Have a wonderful day!